Mobile City Council President Reggie Copeland created a special Curfew Committee to take up the issue. William Carroll will head the group, which also includes council members Bess Rich and Jermaine Burrell. Other council members will be able to attend and participate in discussion but will not vote.

Previously, the council discussed a curfew in its Public Safety Committee, a standing committee headed by Councilman Fred Richardson.

Richardson said it struck him as odd that Copeland would create a new committee to discuss the curfew, considering it clearly falls under the purview of the Public Safety Committee. Nevertheless, Richards said, he has no problem with the move or with Carroll running the meeting, if that’s what it takes to come to consensus.

Copeland said he created the new committee because he wanted to hear some new voices on the matter. The previous committee was “beating the same old drum,” he said.

The new committee will hold a meeting Friday from noon to 3 p.m. on the ninth floor of Government Plaza.

(File)Mobile City Council President Reggie Copeland

Mobile Mayor Sam Jones proposed a curfew that would have prohibited minors from roaming the streets or any other public place, including businesses and other places of commerce, after 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and midnight Friday and Saturday. The same prohibition would have generally applied for school-age children from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on schooldays.

The full City Council considered the proposal earlier this month, but the measure failed after an odd turn of events during the meeting.

Before Jones’ ordinance was put to a vote, Copeland led a move to amend it, stripping out the daytime element and confining the remainder to a trial period.

Richardson and Burrell voted against the amendment, saying they supported the mayor’s original proposal. The others, including Councilman John Williams, who opposes any curfew, voted in favor of Copelands changes.

When the amended version was voted on, Williams voted no, robbing it of the five votes necessary for passage.

The mayor’s original, unamended version, was never put to a straight up or down vote. 